


After Ostagar

by CuriouslyIndecisive



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 09:58:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10874403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuriouslyIndecisive/pseuds/CuriouslyIndecisive
Summary: Surana awakens in Flemeth's hut and reacts to the news of the crushing defeat at Ostagar.





	After Ostagar

I awoke first to blazing pain in my chest. Deep, hot streams of fire emanated from somewhere on the right side of my ribs, pulsing out with every heartbeat, scorching the air in my lungs. I gasped, and a voice I faintly recognized answered with, “Lie still. Tis best you not move yet. Drink.” A cup touched my lips, the warm concoction within slipped over my tongue and down into my stomach. Within moments, I was unconscious again.

I awoke a second time to find the pain eased to a dull ache. I flexed my fingers tentatively, feeling the stiffness that settles into one’s muscles after too long spent in bed. I opened my eyes, blearily gazing about the room. It was a room I did not recognize. I did, however, recognize the other woman occupying it. “Morrigan?” I called softly, my voice dry and rasping.

“Be still. Mother has taken great care to see you healed. It would not do to spoil her efforts now.”

She stood up from the small chair in which she’d been reading and fetched a cup of water. “Sip it, if you please. Slowly at first,” she instructed. “Do you… know where you are? Can you recall anything?”

I thought; it made my head hurt. “The tower…” I began, remembering a room on fire. The Darkspawn flooded in from the only door. We cut so many down, the smell of blood and the stench of death heavy in the air, sticking to us like wet clothing. Wait, _we!_ “We lit the signal. We did it! But there were too many Darkspawn, we were overwhelmed, the four of us. We killed many but more came to replace them… Morrigan, what happened? Did we win? Did the Wardens and the King’s men save Ostagar?”

As I spoke, I watched her face fall with my words. I stopped, reasoned it out. “If we’d won, I’d be at Ostagar in _their_ infirmary. Duncan would have been here in your place.” My voice became pleading, “Morrigan, please, tell me what happened.”

“Tis true, light the signal you did. And shortly after, rather than join the fray, the man who was to stand by your King and Wardens quit the field. They were trapped and overwhelmed. It did not take long. Several days since have passed, while you lay here recovering. You would not wish to see what occurs in that valley now.” Morrigan spoke matter-of-factly, the devastating truth of Loghain’s betrayal slow to dawn on me.

“Why? It doesn’t make sense.” I could see it in my head, the awful images conjuring themselves despite my attempts to resist. The small vanguard of men and women overrun by fiends out of nightmare. The sound of screaming and the clanging of metal meeting metal filling the air. Cailan, naive as he was, was a spectacular fighter, as I’d seen in his sparring matches. And Duncan was certainly no slouch himself. I vehemently hoped they took down more than their fair share.

Not sure I wanted to hear the answers, I asked, “How did I get out of the tower? Am I… am I the only one left? Did no one else survive the battle?” Panic rose in me quickly as this prospect finally occurred to me. The fear of it gripped me, terrified me and pained me far beyond what I’d felt in my ribs.

Morrigan’s face took on a sour look before she replied, “Mother saved you, do you not recall that part? She turned into a giant bird and snatched you from amongst the Darkspawn in the tower. Along with your friend.” The last part seemed to dissatisfy her.

Three men went into that tower with me and only one I’d known for any amount of time before the battle. The one who’d first gone with me into the Wilds, the same one who’d been there when I awoke after the Joining. The only other Grey Warden in all of Ferelden who hadn’t been in that valley. _Please, let it be him_ I thought silently. “I need to see him,” I said, keeping as much of the urgent need from my voice as possible.

“I can’t imagine why you’d wish to,” came the snide answer, “but if you insist.” She turned and disappeared through the plain, wooden door at the far end of the room. I tried to control my breathing, sure that my heart pounding in my chest could be heard all the way back in the Circle. _It has to be him_ I thought. _I can’t do this alone._ If Morrigan’s tale was true, and she had no reason to lie, then Ferelden’s Grey Wardens were gone. That left me to deal with the Blight, a mage entirely unfamiliar with the world beyond the walls of the Circle tower, who’d been a Grey Warden less than a week and was mostly unfamiliar with that as well. How could I alone accomplish such a task?

I heard a knock at the door before it cracked open and a voice called tentatively, “Err, hello? Morrigan said you asked to see me. Are you dressed?”

I pulled the blankets up to cover my bandaged chest and answered, “Yes, come in.”

I watched as he shuffled in nervously and shut the door behind him, and when he turned to face me I knew I wasn’t alone. Some errant stroke of luck had found us in that tower and ensured we made it out together - the last two Wardens. The exultation I felt at having a partner against the Blight erased all other thoughts from my mind. He approached the bed, his eyes lingering momentarily on my bare shoulders, perhaps taking in the deep blue and purple bruising still spattered across them. He sat down in the same small chair that Morrigan had so recently vacated. His eyes met mine, and his relieved grin mirrored my own.

“Hello, Alistair.”


End file.
